Blinking Lights and Wounded Pride
by madmatchstick
Summary: Tony is burning the midnight oil on yet another project, and can't figure out why the stupid lights aren't working. Bruce has a little bit of an idea.


All was quiet in Stark Tower; the various inhabitants that had taken up residence in the newly made quarters all having gone to sleep at relatively reasonable hours. No threats to the world kept them up at night, no new evil plans were being hatched, and all were content to get some well-deserved sleep after having such a rough run of things as of late.

All was quiet, except, of course, in one room.

The fluorescent LEDs were the only light that illuminated the otherwise dark room hidden away in the tower. The slow melody of some jazzy rock band pulsated through the speakers, (Shure, of course, as Tony only had the best when it came to his music,) and the occasional clanking noise interrupting the beat. Machinery lined the walls and littered the floor; the various toys of Tony Stark creating a sort of telltale décor that mirrored his personality perfectly – constantly innovating, but never organized enough to finish one project before starting a new one; excessive and over-the-top. The noises came from the engineer himself, burning the midnight oil.

Or whiskey, rather.

Tony took another sip from his coffee mug full of Jack, (a spangled star adorning the ceramic,) and huffed in discontent. He removed his safety goggles from his head, tossing them on his workbench, and mussed the hair atop his head, staring intently at his piece of machinery that he had been working on. His brows furrowed looking at the mess of wires and soldered circuit boards, almost as if he was convinced if he willed hard enough, it would work.

"I just don't understand why it isn't working," he muttered to himself, pulling up the circuit diagrams on his touch screen again. Another swipe of his hand awoke another screen in front of him, and he pulled up a couple datasheets, staring intently at the multitude of ones and zeros that fell down the page. The blue lights from the screen reflected off the whiskey as he stared into his mug, taking another sip. Tony was no stranger to alcohol and late-night build sessions; often times, it was the thing that kept him going, (along with some coffee, usually with whiskey in that also.)

"Everything should be right. It's a simple project," he said, getting just a bit louder now. "But the goddamn LEDs on this side still aren't working!" Tony took another hearty drink, and slammed the now empty mug down on the table in front of him.

"Goddamn easy projects even being a bitch to work on."

He started pacing at this point, as was per usual when he couldn't figure something out. Pepper had joked more than once that she was surprised that he hadn't worn a hole in the floor yet, (which of course Tony would immediately turn red thinking of the time he almost accidentally blasted a hole through the floor and covered it up before Pepper realize what had happened, but that was a different story.)

"Tony?" a voice came through the open door in the lab, resulting in a startled flinch from the addressed man, who was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice that someone had entered the lab.

"Christ, Banner," he swore, setting his hands on the table to prop himself up. He felt his heartbeat start to return to normal as Bruce walked over to Tony's disorganized workspace.

"I see you've been using whiskey as inventing fuel again," Bruce commented, eyeing the nearly empty bottle of Jack a couple feet away from him.

"Hey, sometimes I need something that burns," snarked Tony, grabbing the bottle again. He wordlessly offered it to the other man, who shook his head in polite decline. Tony shrugged, pouring himself another drink into the mug, and crossed his arms over his chest in silent contemplation, staring at the diagrams yet again.

"I just can't get this little thing to light up," Tony said, somewhat talking to Bruce, somewhat still letting out his frustration in the verbal form. "It's a simple circuit – I've done shit like this in my sleep."

Bruce stared intently at the circuit diagrams, then to the mess of wiring in front of him, then back to the diagrams. He repeated this over the course of a couple minutes, while Tony paced anxiously back and forth, his drink still in hand. Eventually, Bruce let out noise of contemplation, and Tony joined him looking over the board.

"Apparently you can do this stuff in your sleep, but not while you're drinking, huh, Stark?" Banner asked rhetorically, a rare derisive tone creeping into his voice. "You didn't power your gate here."

Banner zoomed in on the diagram, and pointed to the specific offending gate. "Looks like you might need a refresher on electronics. I'll teach you in the morning after I've gotten some sleep." Bruce clapped a slack-jawed Tony on the shoulder, and turned to walk out of the room with a wave. He could feel the inventor's eyes drilling holes in the back of his head, but he still let out a chuckle of amusement as he imagined how humiliated Tony must be feeling right now.

Tony stared at the empty doorframe Bruce had just walked out of for a couple seconds, then turned back to his work and hunched down to connect the power source to his gate.

A light flickered on in the lab as Tony continued to work on until morning.

"He was at it for three days," Pepper said with a smirk on her face, staring at a passed out Tony. He had fallen asleep on one of the couches in the common area after getting himself a three AM snack from the kitchen the night beforehand. It was now the early morning, sun pouring through the large open windows behind Tony.

"He snores like a garbage truck," replied Bruce, hands in his pockets. They had run into each other after Bruce had shuffled out of bed, intending upon making himself some coffee. Pepper, the early riser, had already gotten her caffeine fix and was clutching a large round mug with gratuitous amounts of foam on the top; (she used to always go to the coffee shop around the corner, but Tony had conspicuously put a fancy espresso machine in the kitchen after he finally noticed Pepper with coffee every morning.)

"And gets up five times in the middle of the night because he gets new ideas," Pepper said with a roll of her eyes, walking over to the now beeping coffee machine, indicating that Bruce's coffee was now done. She poured him a cup, just black coffee for him, and passed it over, still staring at the sleeping Tony.

"That sound like Tony," Bruce said with a sigh, taking a sip of his coffee. He took a moment to savor the bitter taste, (Pepper used good coffee beans,) and let the caffeine into his system before he spoke again.

"So what was he working on, exactly?" he asked Pepper, who was munching on a blueberry muffin.

She swallowed her tiny bite, and answered, "His pride was severely wounded after the incident between you two in the lab." She chuckled, giving him a fond, but patronizing look. "He wanted to make something with a lot of LEDs because he was embarrassed about the something-or-other he forgot to do."

Bruce chuckled. "So how'd it turn out?"

"Its..very bright," Pepper said with a laugh. "He'll probably try to figure out some way to offhandedly show it to you within the next day or so. You know his ego."

"I do indeed," Bruce sighed, downing the rest of his coffee. He poured himself another cup, and noticed that Tony had finally jolted awake from his spot on the couch. Pepper gave him a knowing look, nonchalantly taking a sip of her cappuccino, as Tony blearily looked around. His thick hair was a mess atop his head, and he still had dark circles under his eyes. He quickly stood up, (stumbling a bit for a second,) turning around to look at Pepper and Bruce. He took a moment, then uttered only one word.

"Banner."

He nodded at the scientist, then quickly exited the room, shoes making loud thumping noises as he ran down the stairs to his lab.

Pepper cocked an eyebrow at Bruce, a smug expression on her face.

"See? Totally embarrassed."


End file.
